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Challa
=Appearance= She is tall for an Aquilonian woman and has the bearing of a soldier. Her skin is pale where it is not exposed to the sun, and a warm honey color where it is. Her body is leanly muscled and slender, coming together in pleasing proportions and curving at hip and breast in a decidedly feminine manner. Her features are fine with an elegance indicating noble bloodlines. Thickly fringed eyes are slightly slanted giving her pale eyes a startling contrast with their dark framing. Her lips are wide and somewhat thin for a woman, though often mobile and indicating her emotions. Upon her brow is the mark of leadership and nobility tattooed in blue ink, and hair the color of old gold falls over it in sections, often obscuring one eye or the other. Her mane is soft and fine, impatiently cut by her own hand and long overdue for another trim. Sections stray down past her shoulders, threatening to grow long once again. Each slimly muscled shoulder is tattooed with the Aquilonian mark of responsibility and strength, attributes shared by the set of her jaw and the directness of her gaze. =Personality= Though polite and comfortable with all the intricacies and traditions of the noble court, Challa prefers the straightforward dealings of military culture and the sometimes rough manners of those she comes in contact with on a daily basis. She misses very little and some would describe her as quiet, though her silence is more that of an observer and not at all related to shyness or uncertainty. Duty defines her existence, and those she has chosen to give her loyalties to have it in full measure. Though she has an innate dignity and pride, she is not easy to goad into provocation based on insult to herself or her heritage. However her fierce drive to protect her guardsmen, her King, and those in need of help against the evils in the land put her into regular conflict. She is patient and generally calm, though when her anger is triggered, it is explosive. Repeated betrayals on a personal and professional front have left her aloof and distant. She can rarely be seen laughing, and her smile is usually polite and guarded if it is offered at all. She is very aware of her personal space and males especially will find she prefers more than an arms-length in distance even in friendly circumstances. The playful side that those close to her once knew seems to have vanished with the betrayal she suffered at the hands of her husband-by-Cimmerian-tradition, Brutalis of Invicta. She is untouchable and cold, an icemaiden to most perceptions. =History= Challa is the daughter of a scandalous pairing of a very highborn Aquilonian lady who turned her back on her family to marry the love of her life- an impoverished younger son of country nobility who was commissioned as an officer in the Aquilonian army. Challa grew up around soldiers and horses and parents who allowed her to venture into anything that seemed to hold her attention in a manner very atypical of a female of her people. Her father delighted in teaching her to fight as he would the son they had not been blessed with, and her mother made certain she was well educated and would not be slave to any destiny but one she herself selected. After a particular high-spirited escapade that reached the ears of an eccentric great aunt that refused to fall in line with the family accord to disown Challa’s mother because of her marriage, Challa was shipped off to ‘learn to be a lady’ when she was in her 13th year. The young, wild girl was awed by the city of Aquilonia and instantly found a kindred spirit in the eccentric great aunt who educated her in the manners and comportment necessary to a lady. Despite all outcries from relatives who preferred to reject the child based on the politically incorrect actions of her mother, Challa was introduced to the Noble Houses in the formal tradition upon her 16th birth celebration. Yet that year proved one of tragedy despite the triumph she achieved by claiming her birthright. Her father was sent on mission with an elite unit and never returned. It was whispered that the assignment had been the result of a dispossessed relative paying for the opportunity to remove the blemish to the family reputation. Intrigue and accusations abounded, and in the end Challa’s mother grew ill and faded away, eventually surrendering her will to live entirely despite the efforts of her only child. Motherless and fatherless now, the family that had turned from her mother now exerted their claim on the lovely girl child with the expectations that she would make an appropriate match and rectify the decisions of her mother and the reputation of the family name. Yet Challa would have nothing to do with them and instead turned to the one respectable option she had left. She cut her length of honeyed hair with her father’s sword, and left it upon the steps of her grandfather’s mansion and departed without a single look back. Her birth gained her a starting officer commission in the war college, but it was the training her father had given her and the education impressed upon her by her mother that quickly gained her favor with her instructors. War came to Aquilonia, and the corruption of the court boiled over and the death of the old monarchy came with it. Yet when all seemed to be in ashes, Conan rose to the throne. With him came the return of the Old Aquilonian Guard who had vanished decades before when the evils of the noble houses and the decadence of the ruling family had leeched all honor from the Courts. This strong support of an ancient traditional order did much to cement the claims of the new King in the hearts of Aquilonians. His reputation as a strong, battle savvy warrior was matched only by whispers of his wisdom and the tales of his fairness to all peoples and in all issues set before him. Challa found in this new king everything a warrior could aspire to swear fealty to. When she was selected from among others of her class to serve with the ancient order of the Aquilonian King’s Guard it was with a fierce heart that she took her oath and her place among them. Her life would be gladly given for this king that had so cleanly cut the rotten heart out of the city and people she loved. It was only one of his legendary skill and reputation that could restore the ideals of her people and soothe the troubled lands. Yet in the end it was more than her life that would be given, but her soul as well. The fight to reclaim what had been taken from her would lead her into darkness and terror and weakness…but in the end she would stand as Commander of her own Guard division, and founder of the City of Fas in the rolling hills of Poitain. Of her personal life there was to be nothing for her but heartache and betrayal when the man she exchanged a vow of marriage with abandoned her while her guild warred with a powerful enemy. Brutalis of Invicta had won her and cast her aside when her duties called for her to take up arms in open war. The last vestiges of the innocent young woman became buried under a demeanor of ice that would not be exposed again until a young priest of Mitra named Argan healer her wounds and restored her life in more ways than one. Though she is alone again, she is content and focuses on her duties to King and Guard.